Information technology (IT) system landscapes continue to grow in size and complexity due to various factors such as mergers, acquisitions and business growth. Thereby the amount of electronic data or information that is handled and managed by organizations continues to grow. Storing the information handled within an organization may not be feasible due to cost associated with providing and maintaining data storage hardware as well as back-up storage capabilities, and cost associated with data management services.
For example, information such as the amount payable for a certain sales order has a life cycle that often begins with creation of a data entity (e.g., the sales order) in the system. During the lifecycle, the information (e.g., amount payable for the order) is passed to other data entities like invoice or copies of the extracts of the original data that are copied to information warehouses. Further, the data entities have a lifecycle that may end with the disposition or destruction of the data. The end of the lifecycle of the information may be reached when the last bit of data containing the information is destroyed.
Therefore, the lifecycle of the information may begin with creation of the information and conclude with the disposition or destruction of the information. One of the challenges in information lifecycle management (ILM) is retention management. For example, person related data may need to be deleted upon the completion of primary purpose of the data, but may have to be considered for additional retention periods (e.g. Tax Legislation, Insurance Legislation).